Some kids have normal problems. You know, school, girls, whether they're 'cool' or not. Not me, no. My problem is my mom. She's a goddess, you see. No, I'm not kidding. Athena. Goddess of Craftmanship, War, and Wisdom. Pretty big moniker, right? I'm her son. My dad, well, he's a dreamer. Loves history. Writes a lot — some of his stuff's been published, even. We really couldn't have lived on it, but hey. He's a good dad, even so.

Mom is different. You might think having a mom who's a goddess is way cool, right? I mean, she's got to give you lots of cool bennies. /So/ not how it works. I didn't even know about mom till I was like twelve. Dad always changed the subject when I asked about mom. Never would answer a question straight, and I'd probably never have known if not for the monster.

Yeah, don't laugh. Monster. Green-purple skin. Huge serrated knife. It jumped me. I thought I was going to die, but the knife didn't even hurt me. Just kind of shattered when it hit me. I was screaming, and then the thing just melted into sludge, and there she was. Explained to me that she was my mom, and that I was 'special'. Yeah, special all right. Not that being attacked by strange creatures and being a 'hero' she can point at things counts as a good thing. I mean, parts of it are cool, but she just doesn't have a sense of scale, y'know?

Ah well. It really explained a few things. Like how my (admittedly cool) dad managed to support us like he did. It was money from mom. I think she actually loves him, which is odd if you read the Greek myths. Then again, Athena is the virgin goddess, so I don't even know — eurgh. NOT a thought I want to have about my parents.

Anyway. Once she revealed herself to me, we talked a bit. She sent me someone to teach me to fight and to learn magic. I'm /really/ good at the fighting, but I'm not so good at the latter stuff. It's kind of disappointing, really. You'd think a child of Athena'd be really, /really/ smart. I'm not dumb, but I wonder sometimes if I'm a disappointment to her. I can only do simple stuff. She says it's okay, that I'm a demigod and represent her in her War guise, but still. In spite of it all, she's my mom, and I want her to be proud of me.

…

I did a few minor things, and we talked. Mom setup a seperate trust fund for me, which /was/ way cool. I don't have to worry about money. She said that it'd be useful if I ever started to figure out the more complicated stuff. I've still not done that. From that point on, well. I did stuff. Fought a wyvern once. Got attacked by one of Hades' Furies — he was pissed at mom over something. Once fought a titan's spawn. That was scary, they aren't really sane, you know? Got involved in a supervillain battle. That was way cool.

Finally though, mom told me that I couldn't face things alone. I had to meet others. Next thing I knew, I was going to this weird private school, the Steranko Institute. Let me tell you, this place looks weird. I've only been here a month or two, came in late in the school year. Still settling in. Some of the other kids, they can do amazing things! It's really cool. I've got a costume all setup. Going to use this stuff as one of those masked adventurers, like the Guardian Legion or something.

Really though, I just wonder if I'll make my mom proud.

Personality

Reg is fairly focused and calm. He doesn't really have a big temper, though he gets annoyed easily. He's more likely to snap at you and then apologize than start screaming and waving his hands. He's very strong-willed and tends to overfocus at times, which can cause problems. He's got a good sense of humor, though he's not a practical joker. He's also very polite — one might almost say overly so.

Complications

'I am a son of Athena!': Reg lacks confidence in his intelligence and wisdom. One might expect a child of the Goddess of Craftmanship, War, and Wisdom to be frighteningly intelligent. Reg cleaves more towards her War aspect. He's hardly stupid, but he sometimes belittles his intelligence because he's not the towering genius he thinks he should be. This is more of a social, out of combat complication, though a villain could use it in roleplay to distract him from something. It's not likely to work if he's fighting. 'You're stupid' just doesn't cut it when he is going to clock someone in the face.

'Old-Fashioned Chivalry': Some people are heroic. Reg takes it past that, especially with the feminine sex. This isn't sexism, really. It'd be hard for someone whose mom is Athena to think women are inferior. But he's far more likely to dive in front of a death ray if a female is involved, and he's very polite to females — even villainesses. He's likely to give them the benefit of the doubt when he shouldn't, and he can be easily manipulated by putting someone in danger. This would probably be tinged with condescension if he weren't so damn openly polite and almost naive about it.

'Not Now, I'm Busy': Reg focuses on things intensely. When he's focused on something he deems important, it's very hard to distract him. He might not notice someone sneaking up on him, and tends to make a bad impression on folks if they keep trying to distract him, as he may snap 'WHAT?!!?!' Basically, if he's really focused on reading, or enchanting something, or hell, examining someone's wounds in a battle, the GM can make him fail to notice and give the enemy a free attack or something similar. Or make him go 'WHAT?!?!' when someone tries to get him talking socially when he's busy.

'Not Now, Mom!': Athena, being a deity, is not able to put a direct hand into the mortal world due to various reasons such as lack of belief and law of the gods. This is what heroes such as her son are for. She's liable to step in at the wrong moment and ask him to do some task. Really sucks when he has homework or is trying to do something else. Sucks harder when the Titans try to kidnap him to get at mom.

As mentioned in the background, Reg is wealthy. I figure he has enough money to be able to afford what he needs or wants. Of course, if he starts trying to buy a city, he's liable to run into the limits of his trust fund, even from a very forgiving parent. Worse, she might let him… if he agrees to this one little favor…

Athena (and the other gods) can't really just step in and do things. The fact that so few folks believe in them nowadays makes it difficult (but possible) to touch the world. In addition, there's various pacts that say they shan't. Basically, people like Reg are how she touches the world nowadays. Of course, various monsters can be sent after heroes and so on…

Greek is Reg's native language in spite of him being raised in the US. This is because of his parentage. He just has an easier time 'thinking' in Greek.

Reg isn't very good at magical stuff. Thus why he only has lowish scores in the pertinent skills. He can do minor stuff, but he dreams of being able to do the big things. Maybe with time. He has managed to make a magical TV. Which made mom roll her eyes and say 'Mortals!'